Arms of the Mistaken

May 26, 2011

By Anonymous, Greensboro, NC

Image Credit: Christy S., Germantown, NY

The dew formed on the grass, fell lightly across the ground as Callie Evans walked absentmindedly through the grass. Callie was four and had the bright fiery red hair that she had inherited from her father.

“Mommy! Mommy look at me!” Callie says as she picks up the damp leaves and throws them into the air. Her giggle fills the air as she looks up to the air as the leaves fall back around her.

“Aww sweetie! Don’t ruin your new dress, we just got it yesterday.” Amelia yells at her four year old daughter.

Brookes Evans walked hand-in-hand with Amelia, his wife of five years. He loved the warmth around his hands that let him know that she was still there. Callie was skipping ahead of them, continuously kicking up leaves, and giggling at her actions. As they rounded the corner of the never ending path, they saw a bench underneath the branches of three yellow maple trees.

“Callie, Honey, Come back here, stop running! We are taking a break.” Amelia calls for her daughter who continues to run, as her and Brookes sit down.

“No Brookes, Callie needs to learn to listen when we tell her to come to us. We can’t always be going after her. Sit down.” Amelia says pulling him by the wrist.

“Amelia, she is four years old-“

“Brookes.”

“Babe, she is four, we can’t blame her for all that she does wrong.”

“Whatever, go get her. I’m going to wait here and you will see that she will always look for you when something goes wrong. I’ll always be the bad guy to her.

Brookes stands again and head in the direction that his daughter headed just minutes before. The damp leaves laid across the floor, sticking to the bottom of his shoes as he heads for his daughter.

He walks down the steep graveled hill to just see the tip of his daughter red hair round another bend in the road.

“Callie baby, come one, we need to get goin’. If you want we can get some strawberry ice cream, your favorite.” He shouts as he picks up speed to catch up to his too energetic of a daughter.

The sky suddenly turns into a dark array with no sunlight able to shine through the once well-lit sky. Brookes begins to jog, then starts to run, which turns into a sprint toward his daughter.

“Cal! We need to go, it’s starting to get dark and we need to get home before it gets to dark.” Brookes says, but then he stops. He sees his daughter in the arms of another man, one with a fresher face than his.

“Why are you here? What do you want?” Brookes says as he takes another step towards his worried looking little girl.

“Don’t.. Do not take another step.” The stranger says to Brookes as he pulls Callie closer to his warm body.

“Please, she is only four, what could she have possibly done to you?” Tears fill his eyes.

“It’s not really her I wanted, it was you Brookes. You.”

“What? Why did you want me? And why do you have to have my daughter to get me to come to you?”

“Because you Brookes, you stole the love of my life five years ago and now that you have something else that you care about. What if I take her,” He says pointing to Callie, “ like you took Amelia from me!? How would you like that?” The man yells in fury to Brookes.

“Please don’t, Amelia never meant to hurt anyone when she picked me over you. She still loves you” Brookes says with tears leaving a trail upon his face, while trying to convince him that he hasn’t lost that much at all

“Yeah well, that doesn’t make it better now because she still picked you. Not me.” The man pulls a sleek black pistol out from his coat pocket and places it gently against Callie’s pale temples.

“No,” Brookes whispers, “NO!” He screams as he runs toward his little girl.

“I told you not to move.” He hears the man whisper as he pulls the trigger. The limp body of his innocent daughter hits the cold asphalt.

“NO! Why! You.. YOU!”

“Me, me, me? What about me? How about you, there is still one more bullet left, I came today to leave with two bodies dead. So what about me?”

“I will track you down and kill you for killing my daughter.”

“Well, not exactly, I mean if I kill you, than that means that you would be dead and there is no possible way you would be able to kill me.”

“Why!! WHY did you kill her?! How can you live with yourself knowing you just killed a little girl!” Brookes yells as his veins bulge from yelling.

“Because you took Amelia, and that’s the same thing, I died when that happened. I am perfectly fine knowing about your daughter being dead because she wasn’t mine, like Amelia wasn’t yours.”

The next bullet was fired. And Brookes is sent to the same position as his daughter was. Lying dead across the cold, wet, cement as his eyes empty with life.

The man picks up Brookes corpses and places him lightly behind three rows of bushes, so no one else passing by could see the penetrating body.

“Amelia! Amelia! Hurry! Come here!! It’s Callie, its Callie!” Jackson yells as he looks once more at the dead body of the angelic little girl.

“Oh my God! Brookes! How did this happen?! What happened! Why.. why..” Amelia says as the millions of tears to come fall down her now pale cheek.

“I was thinking the same thing. How could someone kill such a little girl like that and not feel anything?” Jackson says as he wraps his arms around Amelia’s limp body.

“WHY! Why would someone do this to our Callie!?” Amelia says as she crumbles into the twin brother's arms of, now dead, Brookes. Jackson.

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